


United We Stand

by WanderlustandFreedom



Series: Descendants/Dreamworks Ultimate-verse [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Battle, Ben is very disorientated but brave, Campfires, Children, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Fights, Hugs, In-Laws, Isle of the Lost (Disney), Mal has no qualms about anything, Married Couple, Married Life, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Parenthood, Pregnancy, Reunions, Sappy, Straight from my Rough Drafts, Tag As I Go, Wings, firstborn, pregnancy reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22055749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderlustandFreedom/pseuds/WanderlustandFreedom
Summary: Outtakes from Her Royal Highness. If you haven't read it, you can still read this, but treat it all as oneshots.
Relationships: Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants)
Series: Descendants/Dreamworks Ultimate-verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587487
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter 1

Ben scribbled his signature on one of the last papers of the day and then dragged the back of his arm across his forehead before sending the paper on a little sandstorm into a filing rack beside the door. He glanced at the clock. It wasn't really late yet - only four twenty-five, but today had been one of those lazy, nothing-to-do days where he'd been able to go slow, talk to people in his meetings a little more in-depth, and then get everything done systematically - in a neat and calm order. The entire day had had a golden-like aura of peace covering it.

Someone rapped the knuckles on the back of their hand softly against the doorframe and Ben looked up. His mouth twisted into a tiny smile when he saw Mal leaning against the door, one hand up beside her head with the palm facing out - that would be the one she'd knocked with - and the other curled around her belly like she was trying to support herself.

"Hey," He greeted her, and let his eyes skim over her. She had this look about her - like she was nervous and prepared and wanting something to lean on all at once. He pushed his chair back and then waited for a second, expecting her to step into the room, before he finally stood up. "You taking a break from work?" He asked.

"I've been working up in our room," Mal explained with a little breath. "Just been feeling uneasy all day." She rubbed her hand up a fraction as Ben circled his desk and went to stand in front of her, reaching out and putting a hand to the small of her back as he did. As she'd gotten more and more pregnant, she'd refused to allow herself to slouch or even to walk strangely. It was a bit odd to see her move so quickly and smoothly when he knew that, logically, she was twenty pounds heavier and the weight of the baby should make her want to fall onto her face. But she managed it well and the only consequence was that her back got tired from holding the new weight all the time. She didn't show it - a principle of Isle endurance - but he knew she hurt.

"My water broke," She confessed, putting her free hand on his forearm. "That's what I came down here to tell you. I'm, uh, about to go into labor."

Ben's skin grew icy. He exhaled slowly. "Okay," he agreed. "Do you still want to stay here, or do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

"I want to stay here," Mal's voice was firm even if her hand shook a little from nervousness.

Ben forced himself to nod again. 'This is her endeavor. However she wants to go through with it, you support her,' he told himself. "Do you want anyone there?" He asked.

Mal's hand tightened on his arm a little. He took her hand from her belly and squeezed it. "I'll be there," he promised. "But… anyone else? Sophia? My mom? I could call someone, too."

"No," Mal declined. "Just you." She took another little breath. "Can you clock out and shut down now? It'll still be a little while, but I want you to be around."

"Of course," Ben agreed. His chest felt unnaturally tight - Mal still hadn't come around to the idea of doctors, and he didn't dare suggest for one after the last time she'd snapped at him. He sort of understood. She didn't want to be exposed to anyone besides him. She didn't want anyone giving her instructions. There had been bad things on the Isle - mistakes from people trying to help - and she didn't trust anyone who would do anything to her body. But still, it was hard to let go of everything he'd been told growing up as a sheltered kid in Auradon. 'When a woman goes into labor, you take her to the hospital.'

Ben shut down his computer, put all his work away, and then shut and locked the door before putting his arm around Mal and walking with her down the hall. For a woman who was probably experiencing some sort of intense contractions, she didn't lean on him very much. Just took deep breaths and let her arm settle around his waist as she walked.

"Our room still?" He asked. Mal nodded. "You realize you could have called me and I would have come up. You didn't need to walk all the way down only to go all the way back."

"Walking helps," Mal explained with a tiny shrug of her shoulders. "I tried sitting down for a few seconds and didn't like it."

Ben sighed. Mal's arm tightened around his waist a little. He rubbed his thumb up and down her spine until she loosened it with a tiny breath. "I could get you something?" He offered. "An Advil, at the very least."

"I get high on those," Mal huffed. "I don't have any drug resistance, remember?"

He did remember. But he had been hopeful she'd cave just a little, at least to calm his nerves.

He opened the door to their room for her. Mal walked in but waited while he shut the door before he retook the space by her side again. "Wait," She stopped him, holding a hand up as she reached behind him. He turned and watched her nimble fingers click the lock into place. "I don't want any of the servants or Sophia sneaking in," she explained.

Ben sighed and nodded a little before looping an arm around her shoulders. "It'll be a while still, right?" He asked.

Mal nodded. "The pain is lasting longer now, but it's still too far in between."

Ben found her hand and squeezed it. "Where do you want to be?' He asked. Mal shrugged and then walked out from under his grip. He followed her into their room without a word.

They ended up curled up together, watching videos on his phone as the sky outside grew darker. Mal would occasionally take a deeper breath or give his hand a little squeeze if he happened to be holding it, but that was his only indication of whatever she might be going through. She was responsive enough - stealing his hand once to kiss his fingertips, humming along softly when a song came on that she liked, laughing quietly when jokes were told - but he still worried when that stubborn look came into her eyes and she curled her toes up a little through her socks(his socks, actually. She'd stolen them) and he'd call her name and she wouldn't turn.

His hands varied position - sometimes on her shoulders when she stretched her head uncomfortably, sometimes clutched in her hand, and sometimes tracing little patterns on her back as they stayed silent, listening to other people talk and just waiting. He kept his head close to hers, kissing her cheek or her hair but mostly staying silent in case she happened to whisper anything. The only time he left her side between five and eight was to escape to the bathroom to get her and him a glass of water. She sipped hers, closing her eyes, keeping her hand on her stomach until he put his beside her and then she was back and it was as if nothing was going on at all.

"Closer?" he asked Mal after the first movie, watching her stretch out her legs out and shift her spine a little.

"Closer," She affirmed. "But still time. Not much; just some."

She moved around a lot. He hadn't realized a woman in labor would do that, but he had to almost consistently switch the angle he was holding his phone at as she rolled towards him, then away from him, then sat up, then laid back down with an exasperated sigh to set one of her legs across his. It didn't bother him. He wasn't watching the movie anyway - it was on to distract Mal. He himself was letting his gaze shift from the ailing fairy to the sky outside, so he could gauge how much time had passed.

Halfway through what he assumed was Moana, though he hadn't really been watching, and with the sun starting to set outside, Mal set her hand across his phone screen and led him to set it down on the bed. "I want to move to the bathroom," she announced. "For easier cleanup."

Ben's heart thudded against his chest. "Now?" He asked, taking a little breath to steady himself.

"Soon," Mal nodded, squeezed his hand a little, and then swung her legs off their bed. Ben shut down his phone and came around to help her. She still moved remarkably well, but Ben could see how all the muscles in her leg were tense and she was moving a little slower than she had been before. "I'm okay," she assured him. It didn't sound like a lie when she said it in that tone of voice, but Ben was sure she had to have some bit of sarcasm behind it.

He set a filled glass of water down beside the bathtub and took four large, fluffy towels folded in fourths to line up along the inside of the tub. She got undressed herself and then he helped her sit down. She was closing her eyes now, still taking deep breaths, but her hold on his hand was steady. He'd heard horror stories of broken hands and crushed fingers - even his dad had been teasing him about how many profanities Belle had screamed at his birth - but it didn't honestly surprise him that Mal wasn't one of those girls. Aside from her palm being a little warmer, there was no difference from the way she would have held his hand on any other day.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, though he felt a bit dumb about asking such an irrelevant, obvious question.

"I am," Mal affirmed, voice soft and steady. That made him uneasy - wasn't she supposed to be yelling at him and madder than a hornet?

"What kind of pain are you in?" He asked, squeezing her hand to see if she'd squeeze back.

"My hips feel like they're being pushed out at a little," Mal explained slowly. "My lower back has lots of pressure on it. And my stomach… it almost feels like I've done too many sit-ups and now I can't relax it."

Ben couldn't stop a small chuckle from escaping himself at her careful description. A ghost of a smile breezed past Mal's lips too. "The contractions are overlapping," She whispered. "But I don't think I need to push yet."

"How will you know?" He asked.

Mal shrugged. "I'm hoping I'll just know," She replied. "All the other girls on the Isle kind of knew when."

They were basing this off of instinct, then. Just him and her. Him with no experience ever having helped someone before and her with whatever demented experiences she'd had on that blasted Isle of the Lost.

Ben kissed her forehead. "Do you need anything?" He asked.

Mal hesitated, thinking. Then she shook her head and leaned her head back. Every single muscle in her body was tense except for her face, which he assumed she was keeping still to calm his nerves and maybe also to prevent headaches. "Talk," She demanded, closing her eyes.

Talk? About what? His mind was blank - he didn't have anything to say. The side of Mal's face twisted in pain for a split second and then relaxed again, and then words tumbled out of his mouth. "It scares me - what you went through over there."

Mal opened one eye. "I didn't do this over there," she told him. "I watched others do it, but not me."

"I'm not just talking about this," Ben spat. "I mean, yeah, childbirth and watching people die and that one girl you've told me about… that's scary. But I'm talking about the all, Mal. The small and the big."

"It's over," she reminded him. "This is my life now."

"I know that but every once in a while you do something like this and I realize that part of you is still living as if you'd never left," He reached down to touch her stomach. As she'd described, it was rock hard - like she was tensing all of her muscles at the same time. A chill ran over her skin and she gasped a little but schooled her expressions quickly.

"Like this?" She questioned him once the pain had paused.

"Like when you wake up beside me and you blink and you're so confused as to who I am because some part of you thinks you should be waking up in the dark on that Isle," Ben began. It surprises him how quickly it all comes out now that he's started. "Or when we're walking past a buffet table and you're hungry but can't stop so you hide things up your sleeves and in your bag - you've put crackers in your hair before, Mal. And then this…" He trailed off, watching sweat drip down her forehead. "I could call someone. Someone to help you."

"You're here," Mal shook her head. "And I know what I'm doing." She scrunched her forehead up then and then braced her legs against the tub for a few seconds. He squeezed her hand tightly, leaned forward to press his mouth to her cheek in a long, desperately worried kiss, And she smiled sideways at him like she found his worrying to be somewhat sweet.

Part of him thought she was absolutely insane, doing this at home in their bathtub without any medicine or a doctor or even a scream. The rest of him was blown away.

She didn't cry. Didn't even whimper. Occasionally her face betrayed her, but the majority of the process was just slow breathing and him rambling softly about her and their baby and everything under the sun until he suddenly had nothing to say and his mouth went dry. There was a part where she had to stop pushing and when he asked why, it's because she could feel the baby crowning. And that thought just turned his stomach because he couldn't physically get a handle on how she was just doing this all by herself. She released his hand. "I need something sharp," she told him. "Some scissors or something. And if you could get some clean thread, that would be useful too."

When he turned back around Mal was leaning forward and removing something from in between her legs. He couldn't hear anything for a few seconds because his ears were ringing, but then he focused and he could hear crying as Mal wiped her forehead off with the back of her arm and looked up at him with a tiny, reassuring smile. "I need those," She nodded at his findings - some scissors which were usually used to cut hair and two thick strings that had been tying a box closed. He collapsed beside the tub and handed them to her numbly. His hands didn't have any feeling in them and his knees felt like jelly as he watched Mal cut her baby loose from herself and then hand the newborn to him.

"Can you clean him off?' She asked. "There's still an afterbirth that I have to take care of. You'll probably not want to see it - it can be a bit nasty."

He took her word for it and turned around. He took her son - his son - their son - to the sink and made sure the water was warm before rinsing the child off.

How was he supposed to do this? He knew from Madison to not let their head drop too far back and don't twist their little arms and - god, he was so little! He fit in Ben's hands and he was taking tiny little breaths as he squealed(Ben didn't quite blame him for crying - he felt a bit like breaking down too and it's not like he was the one who just came out of-) and all Ben could think about is 'WhatWhatWhatWhatWhatWhatWhat.'

Still, he managed it and then wrapped the little one up in a towel to examine him in something like shock. The baby started to calm down as he warmed up, but he fussed still as Ben looked down at him. His head was conical - that's probably normal. His eyes were puffy and swollen. Tiny fists curled up beside his cheeks and he had Mal's nose and everything was just 'WhatWhatWhatWhatWhat.'

The 'what's' got slower as he started to take it all in. This was his son. What? It was their baby. What? His and Mal's little one. What? This was the crown prince. What? The heir to the kingdom. Wha-how?

He still had no clue.

He didn't realize Mal was all done and cleaned up until she leaned against his arm and nearly scared him into satellite orbit. She rested her head against his and then the ringing stopped. He looked back down at his son in his hands and then up into the mirror to examine his brand new family. Mal had stolen one of his bathrobes - they hung on the backside of the door and they were too big for her, but she tied it up snug around her hips and it was like a very large and furry dress. He glanced over his shoulder. Everything was clean. She must have taken the towels and dumped them into the laundry while he was in a daze. "Sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to tune out,"

"That's fine," She assured him, waving a hand a little. "It's overwhelming."

He nodded with a long, slow breath. Mal sat back up and held her hands out for her little one. "Can I have him now?" She whispered. "I need to do some skin-to-skin with him so my body will start recovering."

Ben took her word for it that that was a thing and immediately turned to place the baby in her arms. She pulled down the collar of the robe and leaned her baby's weight against her collarbone before turning and walking back into the bedroom with him. Ben assumed it was so she could lay down or sit on their bed. He followed her, barely remembering to turn off the light as he left.

It was dark outside. Mal laid down on her side with the baby leaning up against her chest, his head pressed onto her chest, just far enough down so that she couldn't rest her chin on him. Ben went and laid down at her side. His phone was still on the bed where it had been abandoned. He put his head on her shoulder and then rested a hand on his son's back so he could feel the baby breath.

"Are you okay?" The question felt more justified now.

Mal shifted her weight. "Yeah," she agreed. "I think I tore a little, so I'll be sore for a day or two, but having him here helps." She ran a hand through his fuzzy hair with a little smile. "His head will look more normal in a day or two. And he'll open his eyes up later too."

"He's perfect," Ben breathed, letting his eyes trace the little person's frame. He had calmed down almost immediately after returning to Mal's arms. It appeared skin-to-skin was good for baby too, and not just mom. Now he was curling up into her frame, little rear end sticking into the air a little and breathing against Mal's skin with a little pouty lip. The baby had her natural pout. Oh dear, was Ben screwed.

"You can hold him again in a moment," Mal offered. "I think I'm supposed to hold onto him for the first half-hour or onwards, but you can hold him afterward."

"I'm okay to just watch," Ben exhaled. "And what are you doing?"

Mal shrugged. "It's just skin-to-skin contact. For baby and I. Evie explained it once to me on the Isle - it helps them adapt to breathing and eating outside of me and then it signals my body that I'm not pregnant anymore and that I need to start taking care of them."

"That sounds like a lie," Ben shook his head. "It sounds like you're lying to me just so you have a good excuse to hold him."

Mal laughed and kissed his cheek. Then she looked back down at their baby and ran a soft hand down his back. "We need to name him," She whispered.

"Not yet," Ben protested. "Mal, my brain is fried and I don't know how you're processing anything. We can't pick a name like this."

"I like Zach," Mal informed him, ignoring everything he'd just said.

"Apparently we can," Ben sighed, leaning his head back into the pillows. "Zach's not a bad name."

"Do you have any good middle names?" Mal asked.

Ben shrugged. "I don't suppose we could call him Zach Hades or Zach Adam, huh?"

"I don't want him to have anyone else's name," Mal wrinkled her nose. "He's his own person."

"That throws out Ben as well, then," Ben nodded. That didn't bother him too much, to be honest. Zach Ben didn't have the best flow. "We had a list. There was Charlie and Booker and Zane and Marshall-"

"I like Marshall," Mal cut him off. "Zach Marshall. Is that kingly enough for you?"

Ben's mouth felt a little dry. "Yeah," He agreed, voice cracking a little. "Yeah, I guess," He exhaled and watched Mal look down at their little baby. She scooted down to put her head against his chest and rolled toward him a little so that tiny Zach was nestled between them but still touching Mal's skin. He put his arms around her and watched her blink once, twice, before closing her eyes and falling asleep. He chuckled.

This was his family. That was his son and that was his wife. This was something he'd built. Built it with Mal and then welcomed Zach. Ben exhaled and then he, too, leaning into the covers and closed his eyes. No matter what happened or where he went, he was always going to remember this. This first perfect night with his two favorite people and the quiet being welcomed in with the peace. The first night of his next new adventure.


	2. BitsnBobs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various small scenes that didn't make it into HRH

* * *

Mal stood up with her arms still crossed and stared at the mural on the wall. Belle gathered up her own shorthand notes and came to stand beside the teen. They stared at the beautiful painting together.

"For our first anniversary, Adam hoped to have the library redone, but the plans took too long to be drawn up. So, two years later, for our third, they began work. I was pregnant with Ben that year. The paint fumes were too much for me most days, so I never saw the progress. Two weeks after he was born, I brought him in here for the first time, and that was the first time I saw the mural." Belle informed Mal.

"It's beautiful." Mal said, with her eyes flitting around the wall. "It offsets the library very nicely."

"It does, doesn't it?" Belle agreed.

Mal got the distinct feeling that Belle wanted to tell her something.

"You know, Mal? You're an incredibly brave girl. One of the bravest I've ever known. We both know this isn't easy, or fair."

"Life isn't fair."

"Of course, it is. Only fair means everyone gets what they need, not what they want."

"Not necessarily." Mal raised an eyebrow at the queen. "I'm not sure you know this, but you still have people starving to death in your country. Is that 'fair'?"

"Well, that's why we have you. To correct our mistakes." Belle shifted her workload and put an arm around Mal's shoulders. "Come on now, let's have dinner."

* * *

Her dreams smelled like wet cardboard and smog. They took place in a building where the floors were falling in and the ceiling had holes in it. An old television sat in front of a moth-eaten couch. A witch with horns was screaming so loudly Mal couldn't hear what she was saying.

It was her old home with her mother. The three villains were nowhere to be seen, but Mal could see Evie, Jay, and Carlos through the holes in the floor as Maleficent screaming louder and louder. None of the words made sense. Her mother's scepter was aglow with green energy as she howled. The foundations of the house shook. Dust rose into the air from the floor. One more shake, and the roof came crashing down on top of Maleficent in a colossal crash that left Mal's bones shaking at the joints. The screaming continued… continued. She looked for the source of the screaming in the rubble, but all was silent there. She caught glimpse of her face in the reflection of a sheet of aluminum. Her mouth was open wide. She was screaming… screaming… screaming.

* * *

That night, she found Ben, Belle, Adam, Sophia, Stewart, Lumiere and a tall, pale, woman with a sickly pallor who was introduced as Lumiere's sweetheart Plumette. When she entered, they all glanced up simultaneously, giving Mal the impression that they'd all been talking about her even though the room was silent.

Ben was pulling wood out of the wood box to put in the furnace. As Mal watched him pile it in, she frowned. "That's not how you build a fire." She reprimanded.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Piling it in like that… it'll take forever to get going. Here." Mal got down on the floor and began arranging the wood in the unlit furnace. She showed him how to make an alcove, so oxygen could get in, but it was harder for wind to blow the fire out. She started the fire and within a few minutes a small blaze was blowing.

"How do you know so much about this?" Ben asked when he and Mal sat back against the legs of a couch. Lumiere and Plumette had offered to move, but Mal and Ben had simultaneously decided the unhealthy woman needed the seat move than them.

"Practice on the Isle." Mal answered with a yawn.

Together on the floor, Mal didn't touch Ben until he opened his hand, palm up, for her to slip her fingers into. With the light of the fire casting orange shadows on them, she leaned her head on his shoulder and yawned. Behind them, Adam was pulling up a blanket around him and Belle, Lumiere was rubbing Plumette's chilly fingers, and Sophia and Stewart were whispering quietly with their knees touching. Mal reached into her pocket and pulled out the last of the strawberries she had snitched that day. She showed Ben with a cheeky smile and used her nail to clumsily break the berry in half.

With the taste of warm strawberry on her tongue and the comforting smell of smoke in the room, her eyes began to drift closed. As Ben's warm, strong fingers curled over her knuckles and twisted her marriage band around her finger, she dreamed of bright colors and soft smiles.

* * *

The door opened. Ben walked back in. He looked up and met her eyes.

"Wait." Mal told Elias. "I know we're in the middle of an interview, but – Ben!" She called.

Ben's head swiveled mid-step as he heard his name. Mal stood up and hurried over to him. The cameraman hadn't been planning on moving, but he swiveled the camera around to reveal everyone backstage as Mal hurried to Ben and wrapped her arms around him quickly.

"Quick hug." She murmured, and then sprinted back.

* * *

Mal returned in June with good, better, and best news. Good news, Ben could sleep again. Better news, donations for the Isle of the Lost had started to come in, and right before the Summer Solstice as well. Best news, three fae people had agreed to journey with her to the Isle of the Lost to help people receive their cards.

Ben met Mal outside in the sunshine as she pulled into the palace circle. As she kissed her husband and let him hug her a few seconds longer than necessary, something occurred to her that had been occurring to her a lot over the last few months. She might be in love. Like, the true love kind of love that only Evie had believed in on the Isle. She'd never thought it could happen to her, but here he was. It was pretty… amazing.

Stewart and Sophia were in love too, which was pretty great even though Mal didn't get to see Sophia as often anymore.

Life was moving onwards and forwards. Mal began to see her life spanned out in front of her as if were a moving picture. She could see the Isle healing and becoming self-sufficient. She could see herself falling in love with Ben over and over, every time she woke up beside him and every time she looked over and caught his gaze. She imagined him with laugh lines and thinning hair, and imagined grey streaks appearing in her hair. It didn't seem like a horrible fate. Doug had been right. She cherished this relationship with her husband.

Maybe one day there would be 'I love you's', and they'd be together the way married couples were supposed to be, and maybe, in a few years, children. Children so that there'd one day be a day when Ben and Mal could step down and live together the way Belle and Adam were now living.

"I missed you." Mal told Ben as three fae women stepped out of the car. "This is Myth, May, and Mercy. They're going to help me on the Isle."

"It's nice to meet you all." Ben said, wrapped an arm around Mal's shoulders. "Thank you for coming. I can help show you all to some rooms where you can stay."

May nodded, and Mal stopped only long enough to pull her suitcase and bag out of the car. By now, she was good at it and had learned to wrap her bag around the handle of the suitcase, so she only had to pull one thing. The three Fae followed Ben and Mal into the palace, where they were shown to three different ground-level rooms that opened into the gardens. The Fae women seemed very pleased.

"Anything interesting happen?" Ben asked.

"Yes, actually." Mal said. "Those three women are planning on taking architectural ideas back to the moors. They're going to break grounds on palaces, huts, and homes. Everyone is very excited."

"Will that ruin the forests?" Ben asked, interested as always.

"No. We're building it out of the way, in an area of the moors slightly damaged from the wars against Stephan's kingdom. They didn't want to loose the natural aspect of the land." Mal explained.

"That's good." Ben nodded. "You going to the Isle soon, then?"

"Tomorrow, hopefully." Mal gave Ben a sympathetic glance. "I'll be back before dark though. Think you can hold out?"

"I'll do my best." Ben chuckled. He clutched her hand tightly. "I missed you." He told her.

Mal pecked his cheek. "Missed you too."

Ben picked up a lock of her hair. "The fairies grew out your hair again."

"They did." Mal sighed. It was back to being shoulder length. "Give it another three visits and it'll be back to where it was."

They reached their room and Mal put her suitcase on the bed in their bedroom and began to unpack. Ben sat down on the bed and watched her as she worked.

"You know what sounds nice?" She started.

"What?" Ben asked with a smile.

"Oh, you and me." Mal started with a smile. "Strawberries, and a cheesy hero movie. We could watch Mulan or Giselle. I've heard they're really good."

"Giselle's is funny." Ben nodded. "You'd probably like her a lot."

"Sweet." Mal said as she put a pair of shoes on a shelf and leaned against the closet door frame to smile at Ben. "It's a date then?" She asked.

Ben gave her a double thumb's-up, and Mal smiled to herself as she went back to her packing.

* * *

The situation on the Isle grew hazardous. Travel outside of the city stopped one night when villains kidnapped a citizen who'd been skirting the wharf and killed her within view of the city. Her body was left to swing from a tree. Mal asked Ben to carry through a message to not travel outside unless absolutely necessary.

A school had started on the Isle, along with several businesses that had started up all without Mal's help. The Deavor girls were keeping track of all the records, all the people, everything. Mal had gotten them two tablets and they had created an entire interdimensional web space where they stored classified data and created official documents, though they were only allowed to do that with Mal's permission.

Meanwhile, more people were dying inside the villain-closed section of the Isle. Screams and cries for help rose continually from the sector, even though many people believed there was no help for them.

Mal was determined to do something.

* * *

Everyone nodded their heads and hurried to their new homes with their possessions. Only a little boy with a black bowl cut lingered. He put his hands behind his back as he walked forward.

"Are you the King n'Queen?" He asked softly.

"Yes." Mal sat forward on her ankles. "Do you need help?" She asked.

"I wanted to tell you I'm Martin, and my mom is Margaret." He said. "I'm a son of Gaston. I wanted you to know I like my mom more."

Ben laughed. He held a fist out to the boy, who stared at it, then slowly tapped his fist against the King of Auradon's. "I don't care who you like more. Besides, you don't have to be like either of your parents. I mean, look at Mal and I."

The boy nodded, and quickly took off running towards the beach. Ben and Mal watched him go.

"He's precious." Mal chuckled softly.

"You've done really well with the Isle." Ben said, taking Mal's hands and kissing her knuckles.

"Thanks." Mal replied with a smile, pulling her hands out of Ben's as she cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Now." Ben quickly swung her off her feet and into his arms as she squealed. "Let's get to work. We have a kingdom to build."


	3. Alternate Wings Scene

Mal once again got up before the sun rose and shook Ben awake. He jumped upright and began to blink rapidly to clear his eyes. "Did I sleep in?" He asked in a panic.

"No, no." Mal rolled her eyes. "Calm down, silly. I'm heading outside. The castle's not frozen anymore, so I'm going to climb the palace again. Want to come?"

Ben blinked a little more and rubbed his face. Then he mumbled: "Yeah, thank you." He got up and pulled a pair of tennis shoes out of his pocket before he put a large blanket in a small backpack and went to the open window. Mal quietly whispered a charm, and together they began to use the ridges where the bricks stuck out around the window frame to hoist themselves up and towards the roof. It was a slow climb, but they made it safely.

As Mal wandered around to find a good place of the roof, Ben stood and looked out over the grounds. "See anything?" Mal asked.

"No." He answered. "Hey, you said you were going to show me your magic thing when you came back, and you never did. Can I see it now?"

"Oh." Mal felt a little nervous. She rubbed her cold hands together and said: "Yeah, I guess." She took a deep breath. "Don't freak out."

Ben chuckled. "I've done that so often."

Mal shrugged. "Yeah. I guess… I'm just a little nervous how you'll react." She helped Ben spread out the blanket, and together they sat down on top of it.

Mal exhaled. "Kay, so you already knew I could do this-" She turned to Ben, and he watched as two large, somewhat curved horns grew out of her skull. True, Ben had seen them before, but they still seemed wicked cool. The black seemed to make her eyes look even more striking than they were. Ben smiled and reached out to wrap a hand around them again. Mal bent her head a little as he examined them with a soft, awed smile.

"Wow." He told her.

Mal chuckled.

"You don't even have to focus anymore." He said.

Mal shrugged. "Yeah. I actually tend to wear them normally when I'm in the moors. But, the fae also taught me how to do… something else." She took Ben's hand from where it was wrapped around her left horn and instead placed it in between her shoulder blades. "Don't freak out." She cautioned.

Ben had a feeling he knew what was coming.

Mal's shirt was flannel and covered her entire back. But as Ben let his hand rest just inches under her neck, he noticed that the shirt started to recoil until two holes had formed. Two lumps formed on Mal's back, which quickly expanded. Ben withdrew his hands and leaned back as he watched two large, beautiful wings begin to grow and stretch into existence.

"Wow." Was all he could say. Mal chuckled nervously and moved her wings out so he could see the full girth and volume of them.

They were almost twice as long as her normal arm-span on either side, and soft and feathery, like her mom's had been. They were also a royal shade of purple, just a little darker than her hair, which Mal had moved in front of her shoulder before she'd let them grow out. They were longer than they were wider and extended from just below Mal's shoulder blades.

"That's wicked cool." Ben said softly.

Mal laughed. "Wicked, you say?" She asked, turning to face Ben. She withdrew her wings so that they wouldn't hit him as she moved, and Ben was amazed to see how the wings curled up behind her arms so naturally, almost as if they were meant to go there.

"That's amazing." Ben sighed. He stroked the length of one of her wings and was pleased when Mal shivered. "You can feel that?"

"Yeah. My horns have no feeling, but my wings are sensitive. I'm told the more I use them, the less sensitive they'll be." Mal smirked at his awed expression.

"Can you fly?" Ben asked.

Mal stood up and extended her wings before she gave them two incredibly powerful flaps that lifted her a few feet off the ground.

"I once flew along the river for a few hundred feet." Mal said as she came back down and sat beside Ben. "I can't do big distances yet."

"And that'll help you get away from the palace more?" Ben asked.

Mal shrugged. "I need more practice, and I need to know Auradon won't freak out." She took another breath and Ben watched as both her wings and her horns disappeared. The rips in the back of her shirt mended themselves automatically, and suddenly Mal was back to normal.

"That's so hot." Ben found himself saying before he could stop the words. Both his and Mal's cheeks went pink at the proclamation, but he did nothing to correct himself or refract his statement.

After several moments, Mal scoffed. "You really do have an Isle kink." She chuckled as she pulled the blanket up around the two of them and put her head down on his shoulder.

"Do not." He laughed.

"You totally do!" Mal protested.

He found her cold hand under the blanket and clutched it tight. "Nope. I'm just totally in love with you."

Mal hummed softly. "I-I think I might… too."

Ben turned to look at her. Her green eyes were lit a little in the darkness. "Really?" He asked.

"I think so, just please… let me have a little more time to be sure." She bit her lip and looked down in the general direction of his collarbone.

"If you're never sure enough to say it, just know you'll always be able to hear it from me." He pulled her hand from the blankets and pressed a kiss to her marriage band. Then, he pulled her into his grasp and kept an arm around her, so he could make sure she was warm.

The sun began to creep into the sky and turn beautiful colors. Mal sighed dreamily and curled into his side. Ben bit his cheek as he thought about something he'd wanted to ask for a while.

"Where do you think we are?" He asked finally, as the first slivers of the sun were coming up in the distance.

"Auradon?" Mal asked.

"No, I mean, us. Where do you think we are as a couple?"

Mal turned to meet Ben's eyes. She looked surprised by the sudden question. "Um, I have no clue. I trust you. I've never trusted anyone like I've trusted you. No one's ever treated me like you have, and encouraged something in me, or believed in me, even."

"When we first got married," Ben started. "I felt like we were more best friends than lovers. But I feel like we're more than that now. What do you think?"

Mal squeezed his hand and brought it close to her chest for a second. "You're a lot more than a best friend. Sophia's my best friend, but you're also a confident, a partner." She appeared to be thinking very hard about it. "I hesitate to say lovers, but…" She twisted her face. "It feels like we're dating, but not rigorously. Like, you know how people date before they're thinking of marriage but after they're past the awkward phase? I feel like we're right at the end of the stage."

She sat up straight. "Why, what would you think we are?"

Ben swallowed. He was clearly a little more passionate about this whole thing than she was, but he decided to be honest nonetheless. "I feel… like we're right on the cusp of being lovers."

They stared at each other for several seconds, and Mal relaxed back into his grip with a thoughtful nod. "I can see that." She said. "Anything else on your mind?"

"Actually, yeah." Ben admitted. "When we first married, we agreed on being chaste with each other. Are you still interested in continuing that?"

"Yes." Mal said immediately. She felt stiff in his arms. Ben released his tender grip. "Sorry." She softened her tone. "I – I need time, still. I need to at least be sure that I'm in love first. And, like you said, we're both still really young. I'm not even legal in Auradon yet." Mal swallowed. "Please, not yet."

Ben couldn't deny he felt a little disappointed, but his parents had taught him better than to argue on this subject with anyone. "Of course." He said. "I would never rush you."

Mal looked at him kindly for those words. Then leaned up and pecked his cheeks. "You're important to me." She said. Those words were her way of saying 'I love you'. "Thanks for everything."

He couldn't stop a smile. "Of course." He agreed.


	4. Alternate Conversation between Core Four

**This scene was cut in favor of the much heavier fight that was included.**

* * *

Far away at the palace, a girl with short purple hair was trying to accustom her friends to everything she'd come to love in Auradon overnight. The Villain Kids – Evie, Jay, and Carlos, the King and Queen – Mal and Ben, Belle and Adam and Sophia and Stewart. Lumiere was taking the day off.

The couches and tables had been moved out of the way on account of there not being enough space, and everyone sat on the floor with blankets as the smell of flowers drifting in with the evening air. Summer was officially here, and southern Auradon was beginning to warm up.

Mal sat surrounded by her friends as everyone jumped in to tell them stories of things that had happened in the last year.

"Mal told Audrey, Ben's old girlfriend, off when she tried to say Mal wouldn't be around much longer. It was pretty extreme." Adam chuckled as he held Belle's hand.

"Yes, and once Lumiere came into Ben's office in the middle of the night and they'd managed to fill the room entirely with dust, and they were covered head to toe with moth balls and dirt." Sophia laughed.

"I let Ben and Mal out of the palace once or twice, and Ben asked me to walk Mal down the aisle." Stewart added to the conversation. He was holding an icepack to his face as Sophia rubbed his hand softly.

"That's… pretty extreme." Carlos sighed. Out of the three, he was the one starting to relax the most.

"Oh!" Mal exclaimed. "I have to tell you guys about Christmas. Christmas is amazing." She clapped her hands together. "So, Auradon has this weird tradition where they bring a live tree inside and they put decorations on it. Ours had a star of top, and lots of pretty colorful lights, and we had so many ornaments! There were icicles and bows and snowflakes…"

"Snowflakes?" Evie asked primly. She sat with her back completely straight, sending judging looks to the Auradon citizens in the room.

"Snow falls differently in Auradon because of the barrier." Mal explained. "It's like tiny piece of powdered sugar, and it's white."

Evie folded her hands in her lap and said nothing. Jay leaned forward. "I'm glad you're safe." He told Mal. "We've been really worried about you."

Mal smiled and patted his hand. "It's been wonderful. Ben and his family are amazing, and they really took care of me. I owe them a lot." She smiled over at Belle, Adam, and Ben.

Belle waved her hand. "You owe us nothing, sweetheart." She said with a smile. Her fingers were inching towards a book a few feet away, where she'd put it when the conversation had first started. "We love how happy you and Ben are together." She put special emphasis on the word 'together'.

Jay rubbed the back of his neck carefully. "How long until the curse is broken?" He asked.

Mal blinked, surprised at the sudden change. "Oh, it's already broken. It's been broken since the beginning of this month."

Evie perked up. "You're already free?" She asked.

Mal raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

Carlos looked at both of his friends. While he had been immediately cautious of Ben, it was becoming clear to him that the King had his heart in a good place. Mal was magical and strong-willed. No way she'd not have left yet if he was mistreating her. She was clearly happy – anyone could tell just watching her smile. But it still felt weird to not worry after spending so long examining her on TV, watching to see any measure of fear or exhaustion in her eyes. But she was healthy, happy, and stronger than ever.

"What are your plans now?" Carlos asked.

Mal smiled at Ben. "Well, we have three kingdoms to run between us, I have to repair the Isle of the Lost, and Mercy, May, and Myth will want to return to the Moors soon so that they can begin renovating the moorland for all the creatures there. We need to rescue everyone in on the Isle, but that might have to wait until August because I have to leave next week."

"Leave?" Evie sputtered.

"I go to the moors every month." Mal smiled. "It's not public knowledge because I don't want people to start tracking me and stopping the car or anything, but I leave on the last day and arrive on the first, every month."

"So, you'll be gone for an entire month?" Jay asked.

"Yeah." Mal nodded.

"Okay." Evie sighed. "I guess I'm just not… cluing in." She twiddled her thumbs before stilling herself again. "Are you two… staying together?"

"Yes." Mal said at the same time as Ben. They laughed at each other. Mal leaned back. "You explain, Ben. You're better at feelings than I am."

"Not true." Ben shook his head. "But I'll still do this." He relaxed and faced Mal's friends. "It took a lot of mutual trust trying to work together those first few months. But I gained immediate respect for Mal and her talents and abilities, and I think I speak for both of us when I say we both genuinely wanted to the other to succeed. Marriage should be about always being in someone's court, cheering for them even if you have to correct them. I hope I speak for both of us when I say that I can't, and don't, want to let go. What we have here is really, really nice." He immediately looked at Mal and sighed when he saw her nodding along to his words.

"I agree. Thank you, Ben." She told him. Then, in a small moment of silliness, she blew him an air kiss. He pretended to catch it with a small smirk pulling at his laps.

Belle thumbed down a page. "Out of curiosity…" She said, closing her book and leaning her head against Adam, who elbowed her. "Alright, and my own selfish desires." She rolled her eyes at her husband as he gave her a knowing look. "Are you and Ben planning at all for… down the road… kids?"

Ben choked, but Mal only rolled her eyes at her mother in law. "Selfish desires?" She asked sarcastically. Sophia and Stewart began to laugh, but Jay and Evie looked startled beyond measure.

"We haven't talked about it for a few months. Been busy. I think we last talked in April, and we decided to not try anything because we were so busy. So, at the moment, no." Mal answered while Ben hid his face from a laughing Sophia and Stewart. Then, with a mischievous glance, Mal smirked and quipped: "Maybe Sophia and Stewart will have kids before we do."

Sophia smiled. "Maybe." She agreed before she kicked her legs up across Stewart's lap. He moved his sunglasses from his coat pocket to the top of his head and put an arm around Sophia, who winked at Mal.

Belle looked between the two of them. "Okay, the signals I'm reading are that either Sophia and Stewart are planning to get married soon, or I'm going to have to wait a great many years from grandkids. I just want you all to be aware I fully cast my vote into the first option." Belle opened her book as Mal, Sophia, and Stewart all laughed. Ben was too busy trying to cast the blush from his cheeks to be much help.

The three villain kids exchanged looks. Was this really Mal, who had denounced love when she was only eight? Was this really the child who had tried to cast Evie into a hundred-year slumber and demanded Carlos hold a party at his house, upon which she threw Evie into his mother's closet?

For Jay especially, he felt like the world was slowing down. How could any of this be real? It all felt so… intangible. He felt like, at any moment, someone would yell: sike!

How many months had he worried that she would be okay? How many times had he figured every word coming out of her mouth was a carefully orchestrated ploy of the palace? How many times had he laid awake at night, imagining the evil crown prince taking unfair advantage of his and Mal's impromptu marriage?

All those moments were reduced to a single, clouded experience as he watched Mal smile across the room as Stewart told a joke to the old King and Queen. Ben was shrugging off his blush, smiling over at Mal, looking downright pleased she still chose to notice him, like her very presence blessed him.

Jay wasn't quite sure how to react to this.


	5. Alternate Pregnancy Reveal

**This scene was cut for not conveying the situation appropriately and for informing Auradon too soon.**

* * *

Mal got back to the castle early, around four. Ben was in a meeting with the other royals when Stewart left them in the driveway with a hug each.

"I'm going to go up to change." Audrey said, picking at the sawdust that covered her Auradon Girl Scouts shirt. They'd helped the construction crew build a new house that day.

"Sounds good." Mal nodded, ruffling her hair and causing a small waterfall of sawdust to waft to the ground outside the palace. Mal sighed and pulled the front door open. "Is it fitting for the queen of Auradon to have sawdust in her hair?" She asked Audrey with a smirk.

"Better than having gutter grudge on your face." Audrey laughed as she slipped inside and began to head up the stairs to the room that she was staying in. Mal laughed as well and pulled out her phone. She stood in the front foyer and texted Sophia: 'Do you know where Ben is?'

Within seconds, she sent back: 'Large meeting room' before sending a purple heart emote. Mal resent it with a laugh.

She headed up to the meeting room. As she approached, the door swung open and Aurora and Phillip appeared, looking incredibly uncomfortable. Ben was yelling inside the room but Mal couldn't make out what was being said as Phillip pulled the door closed behind him. Mal immediately stiffened in surprise. She had barely ever heard Ben yell.

"Oh, you might not want to go in." Aurora said as she caught sight of Mal. "We're having a few problems."

"What of?" Mal asked.

Inside, Ben's voice rose even louder. "Alright! I'll go! But I won't be happy about it!"

Mal's lips pinched together and she rolled her eyes. She approached the door to tell her husband to stop being so melodramatic and was shocked when the handle flew away from her grasp. The door flew open and hit the wall as heroes started to gather their items, most of their faces in varying shades of angry red and pink. Ben stood in the doorway, looking like he was sweating a downpour. He nearly flattened her as he made to storm out of the room.

"You don't have to be happy about it, you just have to get it done!" Adam yelled at his son's retreating back. Mal glimpsed Jack Frost flying above everyone's heads. "Mal has to leave too! It's not your job to always stay here, waiting for her to come back."

"Mal." Ben said, ignoring his father's yells behind him. The room fell silent as they looked at the wide-eyed purple-haired fairy in the doorway. Adam wilted into his seat and pressed his fingers to the bridge between his nose as he sighed.

Mal backed up a few steps to be out of the view of the room. "Going somewhere?" She asked.

"What?" Ben asked in a surprised daze.

There was a silence between them as Ben returned back to homeostasis. "Yes." He sighed. "Up North. War stuff. I'll leave in a few days."

Mal nodded. She wasn't really feeling anything at the moment. She figured she could be sad about him leaving when she wasn't trying to talk to him and when there weren't a hundred other people in the next room. "Need help packing?" She asked.

"That'd be nice." Ben agreed. "Are you okay?"

Mal shrugged. "Well, it's not like I don't live without you for a month every month anyway." Even at those words, she put her arms up around his neck and pressed him close to her. She put her nose in his shoulder crevice and inhaled.

Ben chuckled and hugged her back. "Aw, you'll miss me." He smiled as he began to lightly rub her back.

"Mhm," Mal hummed her nonverbal agreement. "Yeah, don't stay away too long, okay?" She smiled and broke apart from him. No one was moving in the room next to them. "How long will you be?" She sniffled and immediately cursed herself. Nope, nope, no. Bad. She still didn't feel sad, but her body was obviously feeling it. Mal supposed this is what passive sadness must be. It kind of hurt, but in a way her heart wasn't sure what it was actually feeling.

Ben smiled at her. "I don't know, but I'll call you every night if you want."

Mal snorted. "You don't need to do that." She rolled her eyes.

"I will." He promised. His arms were still around his waist.

Mal hummed and brushed imaginary dust off of his shoulders. "Well." She said tactfully. "I was just coming up to tell you…" She hesitated.

"Tell me…" Ben trailed off after a few seconds of waiting for her to speak.

"I'm trying to phrase it!" Mal grumbled.

"Just spit it out!" He probed.

"I can't just spit it out!" She protested. "This is really important!"

"What?" Ben asked.

"Hush." Mal commanded as she fiddled with the lapels on his suit. "You're going to be back by July?" She asked.

"July is months away." Ben deadpanned. "If I'm not back by January, I'll riot – oh crap!" He facepalmed. "Our anniversary. I'll leave before then."

"Doesn't matter." Mal waved him off.

"It does matter." Ben frowned. "I had – _a thing!_ Remember?"

"July?" Mal reminded him.

"Yeah." He sighed with a frown.

"That's good, because I might need a bigger set of hands to help out with my little ones." Mal fumbled over her words. She groaned. "Wait, that sounded more obvious in my head. Let me try again."

Ben squinted at her. "What?" He asked dubiously. "Can't you just tell me?"

"No! I feel pressured to do this in a cute way." Mal snapped back. "I looked at like, two hundred pictures on my way back from the Isle." She groaned. "Okay, try number two. There's going to be a new prince or princess around here." She told Ben.

There was a sudden gasp from inside the room, but Ben was going cross-eyed trying to figure out what she was saying. That meeting must have really fried his brain. Mal pressed her lips together to try to stifle a smile as she waited for him to catch up.

"Is… someone coming to visit?" He asked slowly.

"To stay." Mal corrected. She glanced sideways and saw Adam staring at them with his hair ruffled upwards and a shocked look frozen in his eyes.

"Oh!" Ben exclaimed, drawing her attention back to him. "You're bringing someone else from the Isle over?"

"No." Mal slumped forward. Ben delved back in confusion. "Oh my gosh." Mal looked at the ceiling.

"I don't understand." Ben mourned.

"Okay, okay." Mal sighed. "One more try and then you'll have to ask your mom." Ben gave her a weird look.

"Kay, first you were my sorta-kidnapper," Mal began.

"Ouch." Ben interrupted.

"Hush," Mal demanded with another eye-roll. She began to use her hands to help accentuate what she was saying. "Then you were my fiancé, and then my husband, and now my best friend-slash-significant annoyance. But come July, you'll get the chance to be something that I never had on the Isle because our little family is going to grow."

Ben withdrew his arms to think a little. Mal threw her hands up into the air. "Oh my gosh I married an idiot!" She turned out of his grasp and started to walk away.

Someone in the meeting room finally lost their cool and exploded. "She's pregnant, you idiot!" They yelled. Mal had no idea who it was, but she suddenly had a deep amount of respect for them. Ben's eyes grew wide.

"Oh!" He shouted as he jolted to attention. He suddenly realized she was still walking away. "Wait!" He yelled. "Mal, come back here!" He sprinted towards her, grabbed her hand, yanked her back into his grasp and kissed her. His fingers went straight for her hair. When he withdrew, Mal blinked lazily up at him with an air of 'whatever'. "You're really pregnant?" He asked.

"You're _really_ slow on the uptake." Mal drawled.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked. "Like, emotionally and everything? Can I get you anything?"

"Oh my gosh." Mal rolled her eyes and pushed him out of her path. Someone began to bang their head on a wooden surface in the meeting room. Mal quickly walked back to the doorway and pointed at her father-in-law. "Did you get all that? You're going to be a grandfather." Adam nodded.

"You couldn't have told me like that?" Ben exploded.

"No." Mal insisted stubbornly. "Is Belle in here?" She asked Adam.

"No." He said quietly.

"Dibs on telling your mom." Mal said, turned to walk away. "You get to call my friends and tell them."

"Wait, how is that fair?" Ben asked. "Jay will kill me if you make me tell him. Heck, even Carlos will pound me into the ground. How come you get to tell mom?"

"I called dibs." Mal smiled and walked backwards past Aurora and Phillip. She saluted her dumbfounded husband. "We should play your Auradon news game."

"Thirteen minutes." Ben sighed with an eyeroll. Inside the room, a chorus of voices arose. "Twelve! Nine! Twenty-seven!" People called. Mal raised her eyebrows and disappeared down the hallways of the palace.


	6. Alternate Final Battle

**This Scene was kept partially in the original, though it was re-written almost entirely from scratch.**

* * *

After following Eris based on her nail for what felt like forever, Ben felt a sharp pull in his navel. Up ahead it was exactly as Sinbad had described, with the sea suddenly falling away as if the world had suddenly ended. Beyond the drop was a doorway that looked like a rip had been torn in the sky. Mal stopped on a small, pitiful-looking island and morphed back to herself with a slight stumble. Ben materialized beside her.

"So, that's it." He breathed.

"Ugh." Mal groaned. "I get not wanting neighbors, but did she have to make it so far?" Ben laughed as she caught her breath. "Can you feel if the place is locked up?" Mal asked.

Ben examined the gates tactfully. "They're not." He decided. "At least, they don't feel like they are."

"Okay." Mal nodded. "Let's go, then."

Ben dissolved and waited for her as she grew her wings out and took to the air. She was unsteady in the air, he noticed. Off-balance.

They flew to the drop off and broke over the edge of the chasm. Ben couldn't see the bottom. Carefully, Ben slipped through and began the descent towards Tartarus. For once, he could feel Mal following him.

They fell through the doors and plummeted towards the ground at a ridiculous speed. As they reached the ground, they naturally slowed, but Ben wasn't worried. He reformed himself on top of the vast golden sands and felt Mal land besides him. She clutched her stomach. "Ugh." She groaned.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked with a frown.

"I just… feel awful all of the sudden. Headache and stomach cramps. Ow." She bent over for a few seconds, then stood back up. "Okay." She sighed. "Where would we find Eris?"

"Me?" A de-personified figure asked. The desert floor shook beneath their feet and rocked back and forth. The sand withered around them to reveal black bricks laid beneath their soles. As the sand blew away further, it revealed a pillaged city built only out of broken beams and black bricks. A figure with greasy, black flowing hair appeared, skirting around the edge of a ruined dwelling.

Eris looked, in a word, horrible. Red sores circled her eyes and something black and smooth had dried on her left cheek. She floated like an amputee would walk – with obvious pain. Mal frowned to see her.

Eris gestured at her city. "You like?" She asked. "I was planning to do the whole world like this, but I don't suppose that'll work now." She sighed. "Have you come to kill me?"

Mal snorted. "Kill a goddess? Surely you respect us enough to know we aren't that stupid."

Eris hummed. "Then, have you come to make me promise to stay in Tartarus? Or to not attack your cities anymore?" She sat down on a pile of black bricks and sighed.

"The promise of a villainess?" Mal snorted.

"Of a goddess." Eris corrected. "Don't you have any gods or goddesses in Auradon? I could have sworn that one of my monsters killed a daughter of a god or something." She buried her face in her hands. "Promises. That's how Sinbad defeated me in the first place." She moaned. "Oh, how the mighty fall."

"I wouldn't trust your word lower than I can curtsey." Mal raised her eyebrow.

Eris hummed. "Interesting." She commented. "Then, pray tell, what is your plan?"

"We're here to seal up Tartarus." Ben blurted out.

Eris looked genuinely surprised. "Really? To be honest, I thought that the whole killing gods thing was a bit more straightforward than that." She disappeared and rematerialized in front of the two. Ben took Mal's hand and held on tight. "Don't you know only someone with sand powers can do that?" She asked.

Ben let a smile pull at the corners of his lips. "You're right." He agreed. "An impossible task."

Eris narrowed her eyes. Ben raised Mal's knuckles to his lips. It pained him, what he had to do, but he trusted her. "Can you cover me?" He whispered.

"Go." She nodded, taking his sword off his hip. She unsheathed her knife and put herself in between Ben and Eris. Eris rose up, became exponentially taller, until it was Mal, the little doll-sized dragon filled with three-hundred cubic pounds of sass and Eris, a goddess who was becoming increasingly alarmed as Ben turned towards the wall and summoned every lick of sand he could around him.

Eris screamed in rage as the sands of Tartarus responded to Ben's will before being tugged back by her. She lashed forward and Mal drove Ben's sword into her finger. Eris screamed as Mal began to chant various spells. Ben couldn't hear anything over the rush of sand in his ears and Eris's unholy screams.

He delved into the sands and began to examine them. There were two parts to his magic. One matched the makeup of the sands of Tartarus, and the other matched the nightmare horses. The first was imbued with chaos magic, and the second with fear magic. Unlike Ericka or Jessie, this magic seemed to be pretty evenly mixed. Perfect.

Ben cast his eyes up to the roof of Tartarus and frowned. Even though he didn't have Mal's magic sight, he could feel instinctively that the roof was a completely different brand of magic. It wasn't as chaotic as the sands, but rather very balanced and structured. Ben wasn't sure he could stitch the roof together using the unorganized chaos magic, but he lifted his hands and began to try anyways.

The floors of Tartarus shifted and shook as Eris shrieked. Ben planted his feet as firmly as he could on the rolling sands and sank every ounce of his concentration into the task at hand. He became completely oblivious to the crusade occurring behind him.

From the moment Mal had woken up, she had known she was off her game. Maybe it was Ericka being maybe immortal or knowing today was the day she took Eris out of the war for good, but she had been unsteady and off-balance since the moment she'd opened her eyes. She braced her grip on Ben's trusty sword and bared her teeth at Eris.

"Go ahead." She goaded. "Make my day." She felt her old Isle habits slipping back, even though they were rusty and not used to the new body she had, which was slimmer, healthier, and not to mention about three months pregnant.

"Fools!" Eris boomed. "How dare you? You have taken my daughter and my partner, leave my home!"

"We will." Mal promised. "Just as soon as we make sure you'll never hurt anyone again."

Eris let out an unholy shriek. She tried to reach over Mal's head for Ben, But Mal jumped up and swung her sword at Eris's wrist. Great drops of black blood spilt to the sands. Eris howled in pain and tried to swat at Mal. Mal jumped back and took another swing at Eris's fingers.

Eris, being about twice the size of one of the apartment complexes Mal had built on the Isle should have naturally held the upper hand, but Mal knew how to pick a fight, and she was fast, if suddenly clumsy. She took swings at the goddesses' legs and, when she reached for Ben again, stabbed the entire sword through the length of Eris's foot. The tip of the blade appeared on the other side of her foot as Eris grabbed her foot and screamed.

Above their heads, the walls began, not to seal together, but to become more circular. It looked less like a rip now, and more like the opening to a fishbowl. Ben's whole body shook as cold sweat poured down his face.

Eris pulled the sword out of her foot slowly, inch by inch. "You simpleton." She hissed through the pain as black blood mixed into the sands at her feet. "I will eliminate you, and your stooge of a husband who dares steal my powers!"

"Let's go then!" Mal called. "Bring it on."

Eris laughed cruelly. "You have no sword." She declared. "You don't expect to fight me with a toothpick, now do you?"

Mal sheathed her sword. "You're right." She agreed. "If you're not going to come down there and face me, I might as well take the battle to your level."

As Eris brought a fist down a top Mal's head, she dodged and spread her arms about her. In a flash, green flames burst at her feet, and Mal began to morph, growing upwards, until she was even taller than Eris. Ben broke his concentration long enough to see what was going on, and then dissolved his feet to carry him up to the sky. The hole in the roof of the chasm was slowly growing smaller.

When Mal finished morphing and let out a huff and the now-small Eris beneath her, the goddess of chaos at least had the decency to look amazed. Mal summoned a torrent of fire from her lungs and breathed scorching green flames down on Eris as Ben worked, high in the sky.

Eris shrieked and hurried to over her bare skin as Mal's breath melted her dress, parts of her hair, and the sand. Hot, molten glass now covered the ground. The city of black rocks was slowly sinking away and disappearing.

Eris looked up at the doors and shrieked in anger. "No!" She howled and launched into the sky. Up, up above their heads was Ben, with both hands on the sky, trying to piece in back together with his bare hands. The hole had gradually shrunk to about the size of three people, all head to head.

Mal launched into the sky and knocked Eris to the ground. Eris screamed as she tried to throw the dragon off of her. Mal blew another torrent of flames into Eris's face as she arched her back and tried to get away. Her cries of agony rang in Mal's ears as Ben continued to work up above.

The battle continued. Mal sent back equal firepower for every blow Eris tried to administer. The goddess tried to launch around Mal, but Mal clamped her jaw down on Eris's hair and threw her, tumbling, back into the sands. Eris summoned waves to her will and tried to bury Mal, but the dragon was simply too tall and strong for Eris to compete with. Blow after blow, parry after parry, the fight continued. Meanwhile, Ben remained up ahead, slowly cinching the doors closer and closer together.

Here's something Mal discovered immediately that she hadn't known before: summoning flames, or using any kind of magic, while in her dragon form was extremely taxing. She felt almost like she had after pouring her magic into Ben, trying to melt the sand in his soul. It wasn't like this was her first rendezvous with fire before; she'd summoned flames briefly when attacking Duloc. However, this was on a much greater scale, with much greater stakes. She had to keep the flames from incinerating Ben, who, despite his newfound magic, was still extremely flammable. Meanwhile, the sands were melting with increasing rates and turning into jagged glass sculptures with horrifying points.

She managed to claw Eris down her cheek, though Mal knew her wounds would never have the same effect as Helena's poisonous touch. Eris was growing more desperate. She called the sands to her will, sacrificing some to battle the fires catching in her hair and on her dress, and hurling more and more toward Mal in the forms of whips and ropes that seared her scales and rubbed off her joints. Despite all this, Mal managed to keep Eris back. She and Eris were both failing in terms of energy at a steady rate, though.

After almost two hours of Mal throwing Eris back as Eris tried with all her might to knock Ben down from the ceiling, the hole had finally shrunk to a size just big enough for someone to slip through. Ben turned around and called her name over the roars and shrieks coming from the two brawling girls. Every muscle in Mal's body was on fire. She was shaking from exertion and swaying in her dragon form. Still, she knew she had to do something to keep Eris subdued long enough for the two of them to escape.

Ben dissolved and appeared on the ever-shifting sands beside her. Mal almost had a heart attack as a mountain of golden sands collapsed on top of him, but he simply rematerialized above the pile. He rubbed his hands together, and held his palms outstretched towards Eris. For a space of a breath, nothing happened. Then thick, midnight blue sands appeared from his hands and raced back to Eris, who shrieked at them both as she tried to hurl sand at the small hole in the sky.

A distinct cold crept down Mal's spine as she glimpsed the blue sands. This was not the normal sands of chaos that Ben would summon. This was fear magic. Pitch's magic.

Eris batted the sand back, but the moment it made contact with her skin, she paused and began to slow in her own movements.

Mal used her two front feet to push Eris back into the sands. She began to shake as more fear sand swirled around her. Mal inhaled and let loose the largest blast of fire she'd created that day. As Eris struggled to get up from the thick black and golden sands, they began to melt and hold her fast in place. As the hot glass touched her skin, Eris screamed. She pulled her hands up – two glowing red molten blobs and howled in agony.

"Let's go!" Ben yelled at her. Mal wasn't sure how she heard him. His voice seemed to be coming from all directions.

Eris arched her head back and wailed. The very walls of Tartarus shook as her voice thrummed in Mal's ears. She shut her eyes and forced herself, on the last dregs of her magic, to return back to herself.

The swirling piles of sand were a lot more threatening once she was small. It was impossible for her to keep her balance as the sand seemed to be pulling her legs down and her ankles apart from each other. The glass, which was still being heated from Mal's fire, was streaming in a fast river for her. Ben yelled her name. Mal concentrated hard for her wings and shot upwards, out of the sand. Ben dissolved and headed towards the ceiling as she followed. The hole was still there, but the longer it was left alone, the more it would pull apart.

Ben reappeared hanging onto the edge of the barrier. "We need to finish it on this side before we head over." He coughed. His throat was as dry as her entire body felt.

Mal nodded and lit her eyes up as she examined the magic of the wall. Ben didn't have much experience, but he had worked slowly, doing his best, and the bindings were strong. Mal quickly set to work, despite the fact she had next to no magic left in her body. She spelled the edges of the hole to pull open when Eris wasn't powerful enough to leave and to pull closed when she was. It was a bit of work, with Eris herself being so far away, but doable. Ben took her arm to support her as she finished. Her last dregs of strength were ebbing away.

"Good job." He whispered when the last spell had been cast. "I knew you could do it."

"Help me up." Mal ordered as her eyes slipped into the back of her head for a few seconds before returning to their normal shades. Her wings faltered and began to beat again.


	7. Alternate Ending

**Copied and pasted straight from my rough draft, this has zero editing and didn't make it into the final story.**

There was thirty minutes until the new year began, and Ben and Mal were dressed in their finest as they walked down the entrance hall together in Beast's castle, two days later. Belle, Adam, Madison, Lumiere, Plumette, Sophia, Stewart, Jay, Carlos, Evie, Ella, Dizzy, Erick, Ericka, Jack, Elsa, Jessie, Jarrett and Audrey were all gathered outside the doors, fixing last-minute gowns and greeting each other with wide smiles. Dizzy was spinning in a blue and red dress with a golden crown tucked into her curls, and Jarrett was fidgeting as Audrey adjusted his tie for the ninth time, keeping her hands on his chest with a sultry smile.

As Mal hit the bottom of the stairs with Ben at her side, Jay, Evie, and Carlos appeared out of nowhere.

"You look lovely." Evie sighed as she bent down to pull out the flounce in Mal's skirt.

"You really outdid yourself, E." Carlos muttered as he smiled at their old friend. Mal was wearing an A-line purple dress that she was trying hard not to stumble in. As Evie pulled the flounce out further, Mal prayed that Evie wouldn't notice she was wearing tennis shoes underneath her skirts. Ben was wearing his second-nicest dark suit, with the first being the one he'd married Mal in. The most striking thing about Mal wasn't her short hair, which almost matched Belle's, or the dress. Rather, it was the small swell that Mal was actively guarding around her waist that marked her as nearly three months into her first pregnancy.

"You look like you're sporting a little weight there, Mal." Jay teased as he helped Mal through the crowd and to the door. Ben let her hand go with a smile as Evie began to fix him up and assure his crown was firmly on his head.

"Ugh, blame the pineapple." Mal rolled her eyes with a happy smile. "I've been craving that crap like crazy. My mouth has been begging for mercy."

Audrey laughed as Mal passed. "It's good, you can't deny!" Jarrett smiled shyly and kissed her cheek while her head was turned.

Mal took Madison from Belle and held her up for Jay to see. Jay's eyes lit up as he tickled the smiling child under her chin. Madison laughed and giggled.

"She's getting so big!" He commented.

"Six months old." Mal agreed. "She can hold her own bottle, sit all by herself, and she's started to babble."

As if Mal's words had triggered a reaction in the small girl, Madison began to coo. "Aba-ah-du…" She babbled as she stuffed her little fist into her mouth. Mal laughed.

"Belle says she's finally as big as Ben was as a newborn." Mal told Jay. "Crazy, huh?"

"Sheesh." Jay said, looking back and forth between Madison and Mal. "You'd better hope your kid gets your genes, so you don't die during childbirth."

Mal scoffed. "As if anything could kill me." She said, handing Madison back to Belle. "I'll lay down my life when I'm ready and feel like it."

Jay laughed. And Mal bumped him with her hip. "What about you?" She asked. Jay blushed. "I've been seeing this girl… she just came back to Auradon Accelerated from the war. Do you know Lonnie?"

"Lonnie?" Ben asked, coming up behind Mal and putting his arms around her. "Mulan and Shang's girl?"

"Wow, look at you, Jay." Mal smiled. "That's great."

"I'm not the only one." Jay straightened up. "Carlos asked the Fairy Godmother's girl out. Jane? She came with all her classmates from Auradon Prep to look at campus and they hit it off. And Evie asked your IT guy, Doug, for help, and now he's also helping her start an on-campus business where she designs and makes clothes for people. She's calling it Evie's 4 hearts."

Mal's face dropped. "Evie's four hearts?" She asked.

Jay nodded. "You know, because there's four of us. Her, me, Carlos…" He took Mal's hand and squeezed it. "And you."

Mal smiled. Her eyes were a little wet, but no one said anything as she wiped them away. "I love it." She said. "What a wonderful name.

"Are we ready?" Sophia asked as she peered outside. "There's twenty minutes left. Ben, Mal, are you planning on talking to the press at all?"

"Yeah." Mal nodded before Ben could answer. "It's the end of the war and a brand-new year. We both have a few things prepared."

Ben nodded and patted his pocket, where the rustle of papers could be heard.

Lumiere cleared his throat. "I would like to say something before the doors open." He told everyone. The room quieted as Lumiere brushed invisible dust off of himself. "Living in the palace and serving Adam's father, and then Adam, and then Belle and their son Ben has been a joy. Not always was it easy, and I will pick my human form over my candelabra prison every day, but a joy, nonetheless. However, as many of you have been so kind as to point out, I am taking on years." Lumiere held his hand out to Belle and fell to his knees. "Ma chère," He murmured, kissing her hand. "It is time for me to take my retirement. I wish to spend the remainder of my days with my lovely Plumette, however numbered those days may be."

Belle's eyes filled with tears. "Of course, Lumiere, but please, visit often. You've been here ever since I came here as a young girl. The palace won't be the same without you. Is there any way I can help you on your way?"

"No." Lumiere shook his head. "But I am greatly endowed by your presence whenever you enter the room." He flicked Madison on the nose lightly. "Be good, young one." He whispered.

Lumiere took his place by the doors and opened them for those inside, presumably for the last time. Mal was holding back tears as she shook Lumiere's hand and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Good luck." She whispered.

Lumiere smiled and cupped her cheek. "I won't need it. And neither will you, Queen Mal."

Ben took her arm as Lumiere announced to the crowd outside: "Please rise for their royal highnesses, King Ben and Queen Mal of Auradon, the Isle, and the Moorlands! Returned war veterans and heroes of Tartarus!"

Ben took Mal's hand and squeezed it before he led her out into an array of flashing cameras. A large, beautiful moon was rising outside. Almost two hundred people were gathered for a party on the grounds below. Reporters were gathering at the base of the porch. As Lumiere announced everyone behind them, Ben and Mal made their way to the reporters. Mal was pleasantly surprised to see Elias standing in the crowd. "Elias!" She smiled, reaching out and shaking his hand. "You're here!"

"Aye!" He agreed. "Care to spare a few words for me?"

"Go ahead." Mal affirmed. "Be a shark." She winked, and cameras flashed.

Elias laughed. "I should probably ask if you have anything prepared first, yes?"

Mal laughed as Ben slipped her paper into her hands. She unfolded it and cleared her throat. "I hope you have a video feed going." She told the reporters. "Because you're not going to want to miss a single word of this."

Cameras zoomed in and the reporters shushed each other loudly. Mal smiled. "We've been keeping secrets." She announced. "But all that is over now. Many of you have wondered why I was brought here, where I came from, and why everything was so rushed while we were all staying so quiet. The truth is, the castle knew almost nothing about me until Ben went in for his preliminary checks for the kingdom, and it was discovered my mother had attempted to recreate a soul bond in the form of a blood anchor. She had cursed him so that he could nary become king, nor could he have any power of crown unless I was also given ruling power over Auradon. The palace, assuming my mother had already told me everything and we had been waiting for this day for years, hauled me off of the Isle to keep me captive inside the palace until they figure out what to do. Coming to Auradon, I feared torture, exile, and even execution. No one was quite sure what to do with me once I arrived, though."

Mal paused to ensure she still had the reporter's attention as she continued to read. "I became queen with zero power because they still didn't know what kind of person I was. Throughout it all, Ben had the upmost faith in me. He was the first person who thought I would be able to make something extraordinary out of me. Many nights were spent staying up talking, laughing, and watching old Auradon hero movies."

Mal flipped her paper over. "The curse was loosened last June, and I was given the option to abdicate my throne, give up the responsibilities and go home if I wanted. I chose to stay because I couldn't imagine a life without the man I'd come to love. Or rather, I could imagine it, and I didn't want it. Then, a little over a month ago, when Ben was captured by the villains on the Overland, I ventured up there and found that a magical girl with poisonous magic had scratched him, and he was starting to die by magical poisoning, the same thing that took my mother. When I brought him back to Auradon, he was hours from death. Rapunzel, Fairy Godmother and I teamed up to accomplish something that had never before been accomplished, and we forced the magic in his system to turn itself around. Fairy Godmother's magical wand was melted in the process. When it was over Ben- well, I'll let him tell you that part." She and Ben shared a smirk.

"And finally, last week, when we ventured into Tartarus, Ben was forced to leave me behind to die." Mal felt her eyes well up with tears and her hands began to shake. "I had used all of the magic at my disposal and I had managed to melt Eris, the goddess of discord, into a fiery prison. I had no energy as Ben tried to pull me through the gates of Tartarus only to discover Eris had sealed the barrier. I could not travel through without sand magic and could not be turned into sand without killing our baby in the process. We both knew there was nothing we could do. He could have stayed behind, but we both would have died to no avail. I begged Ben to come back to Auradon, take a new wife, and find his happiness again, without any curses pressuring him. He left for help, and I dropped to the earth, knowing I was about to die.

"But when I woke up, the strongest feeling I'd ever had overtook me, and I knew I needed to go back to him. It didn't matter that it was impossible for me to leave, because I'd already accomplish far more than one impossible task. Using Eris's sand magic, I managed to make it out of her realm and sealed the border to Tartarus, only to find Ben, who had tried to return for me." Mal took his hand and squeezed it tightly as she used her other hand to fold her paper back up. "I truly know we can do anything together." She told him. "And I? I can do anything with your support." She leaned up, and they shared a kiss in front of the cameras. Ben put a hand around her waist and pulled another paper out of his pocket.

"She's amazing, isn't she?" He started, clearing his throat. "I have an announcement. Something that will change Auradon. Before that, I want to thank you all for adapting so well to the changes I instituted before leaving. There were lots of questions, but all of you followed through with orders and began to develop very unique systems, answering each of your own questions one by one. I expected to come back to a week's worth of work, but my parents gladly informed me that everything had worked out, and there was not a soul unhappy with the changes."

Ben ran a hand through his hair. The dark-light division in his hair was more visible than ever before in the moonlight.

"Five minutes to new year!" Someone shouted in the distance.

"Better hurry." Ben muttered. "Now, before I make the announcement, you must all understand that this has been in the works since before I was king. However, it became increasingly pressing with the war and… what happened with my magical poisoning." Ben fumbled his paper and swallowed. Mal put a hand on his shoulder. "I had accepted the fact I was going to die when Mal decided that I wasn't allowed to leave her behind. I don't remember a lot, but I remember that I felt like there was living fire underneath my skin, and I felt her forehead against mine. We shared memories, guys. I saw everything we'd put her through, and I shared things that had happened to me in my youth and growing up. And when I woke up, I have changed. My skin's a little paler than it used to be. My hair, as many of you have noticed but kindly said nothing to me about, now has two shades that somehow split an inch from my scalp. My eyes are darker, and I now have long scars across my chest from where I was clawed. Black dragon skin formed over the scars from Mal's magic, and none of these things will ever go away. But the most pressing thing is-" Ben held out his hand. His customary sandstorm appeared in his hand and people screamed and gasped in surprise. "I have magic." Ben admitted. "It's not a bad thing, it's not an evil thing. It's just a thing. Mal told me that magic doesn't change who you are at heart. And it doesn't. I'm still the same person. Now, leading from that, it's time for me to announce a very important permanent change to Auradon's laws."

Across the gardens, where the guests couldn't hear Ben speaking, someone began a count down. "Fifteen! Fourteen! Thirteen!"

Others joined in the countdown as Ben rushed to finish up. "We have decided to abolish the laws forbidding Magic that were instituted twenty-five years ago. Auradon is magical once more!"

As reporters erupted into questions and cameras began to flash more hurriedly, the countdown grew in volume. "Five! Four!"

Ben and Mal linked arms and joined in as reporters continued to try and ask questions. Poor Elias looked absolutely done.

"Three! Two! One!" A horn went off, and fireworks filled the sky. Ben took Mal's chin and brought her mouth up to his. As people screamed and cheered and began to wish each other a happy new year, Ben kissed his wife under a full moon. She took his crown off his head and fished around in her curls for her crown before she leaned into his shoulder. They watched the midnight festivities begin, saw Stewart drop to his knees and offer a ring to Sophia, and not for the first time, Mal felt a surge of pride. "We did it." She whispered. "This is like a massive chain-reaction."

Ben put his arms around her and rubbed his thumbs on her stomach. "Let's not let it stop now. We're almost there." He promised.

Mal raised her eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" She asked. "This feels an awful lot like a happily-ever-after to me."

"I thought that villains didn't get happily-ever-afters?" Ben asked.

Mal snorted. "It's a good thing Auradonians get them. Mind if I stick around and filch off of yours?"

Ben smiled. "Without a doubt."

They kissed again. All was well.


End file.
